Girdle



Aug. 14, 1956 c, STUDLER 2,758,311

GIRDLE Filed Sept. 28, 1953 .INVENTOR. 6.4424 5; 572/045)? TTOE/VEK United States Patent GIRDLE Clara B. Studler, Glendale, Calif.

Application September 28, 1953, Serial No. 382,541

4 Claims. (Cl. 2-43) This invention relates to girdles such as are worn by women, and which fit closely to the body at the waist and over the hips and thighs. Such girdles are, of course, composed of stretchable material that enables them to give and yield with the movements of the wearers body.

One of the objects of this invention is to produce a girdle which will fit closely to the wearers body, but which will adapt itself quickly and readily to movements of the wearers thighs in a lateral plane with reference to the frontand-rear axial plane of the girdle; also to provide a construction in which the portion of the girdle that covers the hip and thigh on one side, when displaced in a lateral direction will develop tension in the girdle, not directly across from the lower end of the girdle in a general horizontal direction, but which will develop tension in the girdle in an inclined direction and over to the opposite hip of the wearer.

In order to attain these effects the girdle is preferably constructed out of two members which may be substantially alike in form and construction, but of opposite character, that is, each of these members may be described as including a broad belt, broader at one side than at the other; and these two belts are tapered to conform approximately to the wearers hips, and are connected, telescoped with each other, and with the wide side of each belt superposed, and adjacent to, the narrow side of the other belt.

Further objects of the invention will be evident from a careful study of the present specification and its accompanying drawing.

The invention consists in the novel parts and combina tions of parts to be described hereinafter, all of which contribute to produce an efficient girdle.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is described in the following specification, while the broad scope of the invention is pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a side view of the nature of a perspective illustrating the inner member or belt of stretchable material that is preferable to employ in constructing the girdle.

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 but illustrating the outer member or belt that is preferably employed.

Figure 2a is a fragmentary view showing the typical section at the lower edge of the belts, as though taken on the line 2a2a of Figure 2.

Figure 3 is a front elevation of the complete girdle showing a portion of the outer element or belt broken away and partially in section to illustrate details of the girdle.

Figure 4 is a front elevation of the girdle illustrating how the girdle operates to accommodate a lateral movement of one of the wearers thighs.

Referring to the drawing, which illustrates the preferred manner in which the girdle is constructed, 1 and 2 indicate two annular members or belts of stretchable material commonly known as 2-way stretch material,

2,758,311 Patented Aug. 14, 1956 "ice that is to say, the belt 1 is relatively wide at its side edge 3 and relatively narrow at its opposite side edge 4 at which point the belt is provided with a slit 5, that may incompletely or completely extend through the width of the belt; and the edges 6 and 7 at this slit are preferably provided with hems (not shown).

The other member or belt 2 is preferably constructed as a closed band the edges 8 and 9 on its narrow side edge being overlapped and connected by a seam (see Figure 2).

The belt 2 is provided with a slit 10 which is coextensive with the slit 5, and this slit does not extend down to the lower end, or bottom edge 11 of this belt, it gives two edges 12 and 13 on each side of the slit, respectively.

The two belts 1 and 2 have upper openings 14 and 15 of equal diameter, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. The side edges 12 and 13 and slit 10 are at the relatively wide end of the belt 2 while the edge 16 at the other end of this belt is relatively short, and the lower edge or side 11 at the lower end of the belt 2 is located in an inclined plane as shown in Figure 2, by reason of the difference in vertica depth or width of the two ends of the belt 2; and by reason of the similar difference in width of the side edges 3 and 4 of the belt 1 its lower edge 17 is also disposed in an inclined plane. The two planes in which these two edges are located extend in opposite directions so that when the two belts are telescoped with each other as indicated in Figure 3, as a step in forming the complete girdle, the two oppositely inclined planes in which the edges 11 and 17 are located intersect each other at the point 18 which is located substantially on the front-andrear medial axial plane of the girdle.

As is usual in the construction of girdles, the girdle must be enlarged in a transverse direction toward its lower end; in other words, when the girdle is lying on a horizontal surface, or is fitted around the wearers body it tends to assume a form in which the elements of the belt that are in a vertical plane incline toward each other, that is to say, they converge in an upward direction.

After the two belts are telescoped with each other as shown in Figure 3, the belt 2 constitutes an outer member or element of the girdle, while the belt 1 constitutes an inner member; and the area of contact of the two forward extensions at the front of the girdle of stretchable material composing them are superposed on each other; and this is also true of the rear side or back of the girdle.

If desired, in constructing these belts, more material may be permitted at the side portions of the belt that will be located at the back, as compared with the amount of material at the front; at least that would be advisable for fitting persons known as stylish stouts.

Having telescoped the two annular members as indicated in Figure 3 the edge 6 is then secured by preferably stitching to the edge 12 and the edge 7 is secured by stitching to the edge 13, after which any suitable fastening means may be secured on or adjacent to these edges for drawing the same together to tighten the girdle on the wearer. For this purpose I prefer to employ a zipper 19, the runner 20 of which is normally located at the upper end of the zipper when the girdle is being worn. The upper edges of the two belts should then be sewed together along a seam 21 preferably with hems (not illustrated).

However, hems such as the hem 22, illustrated in Figure 3 in section, may be employed if desired on any edges of the belts. I prefer, however, that with the exception of the zipper 9, there should be no other connections between the areas of the two belts, except,

3 of course, the seam 21 which is at the common opening at the upper edges 14 and 15 indicated at 23, which opening is at the waist line of the girdle that encompasses the waist of the wearers body.

The advantages derived from this invention are illus trated in Figure 4, where the normal upright outline of the wearer at the thigh on the right is slightly distorted in an outward direction. When this occurs, as in Figure 4, of course the material adjacent the lower edge 11 is stretched by tensile forces acting substantially parallel to the line F in the material and substantially parallel to the edge 11. They are resisted by the upper portion of the wearers hip as at the line 26 in Figure 4.

Hose supporters 27, and 28, are preferably attached respectively to the extreme side edges of the belts 1 and 2 of the girdle as shown in Figure 4, and at intermediate points 29 on the lower edges of the belts;

Of course the tensile forces in the girdle acting paral lel with the line F tend to cause the right lower end of the girdle to climb up on the adjacent thigh, but the presence of the hose supporter 27 located at the extreme side portion co-operates to prevent that.

Many other embodiments of this invention may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Although I have described the girdle as being com posed of any stretchable material, it is obvious that it can be composed or constructed of any kind of fabric other than elastic material if desired. Regardless of the character of the material of which it is constructed, the action of the girdle in adapting itself to the movements of the wearers body will be substantially the same.

Furthermore, in practice the vertical length of the girdle at the back may be somewhat longer than the vertical length of the same at the front. This may be desirable particularly when the girdle is to be worn by a stout person.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a girdle, the combination of an annular inner member composed of circumferentially stretchable ma terial, and an outer annular member telescoped around the inner member and in contact therewith, said outer member also composed of eircumferentially stretchable material; the upper edges of said members lying adjacent each other throughout their entire circumference, connected together, and lying in a substantially hori-- zontal plane, and completely encircling the wearers waist in said horizontal plane when the girdle is being worn; said members each having a relatively long side edge at one side and a relatively short side edge at its other side; said members being placed so that the relatively long side edge of each member is disposed adjacent to the relatively short side edge of the other member; each member having a single opening at its lower end with its own edge separate from the corresponding lower edge of the other member, and each of said lower edges completely encircling the wearers body, the edges of said separate lower openings Being disposed respectively in planes oppositely inclined with respect to each other, the said inclined lower edges being continuous and unobstructed throughout their entire circumference and stretchable independently of each other at all points in their circumference.

2. A girdle according to claim 1, including a hose supporter attached to the lowest point at the outer side of the girdle.

3. A girdle according to claim 1 having a slit passing down through the said attached upper edges at one side of the girdle and exten i gdown partially through that side of the girdle towards its lower edge; and disconnectible means for connecting and disconnecting the edges of the said slit to or from each other.

'4. A girdle comprising two belts composed of stretchable mateiialtelescoped on each other said belts having upper edges adapted to completely encircle the wearers waist when worn, said upper edges being disposed in a horizontal plane when the girdle is worn, and connected together, each of said belts capable of lying upon a horizontal surface and being relatively wide at one side, and at relatively narrow width at the opposite side, said girdle having the narrow portion of each belt superposed on the relatively wide portion of the other belt, said belts presenting transverse lower edges free of each other so as to be independently stretchable, and when worn disposed respectively in planes inclined to a horizontalplane, the planes in which the said lower edges of said belts lie, intersecting each other at an angle the yertex of which is located substantially on the medial front and rear axial plane of the girdle when the same is lying upon the said horizontal surface.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,445,322 Fridolpli July it}, 2,519,602 Raga ug. 22, 1,950 2,640,196 Gould June 2, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 

